When re-loading Firefox my previous bookmarks were not retained, although I think may have located them via a Microsoft remedy (Firefox remedies have been fruitless.) They are not not the old Firefox folder (my most recent entry was 2019,) and not in the places Firefox has suggested looking. I will backup my current 5 days worth of bookmarks, when all of the downloads are current, and try to download the Microsoft suggestion. My question is; why are they NOT automatically saved? And if somebody has a remedy for me please send it as I will not do anything with my bookmarks for a few days.

Does "my current 5 days worth of bookmarks" mean that when you reinstalled Firefox, it discovered your existing data, or at least it thinks it did, but the bookmarks were completely missing and you started adding new bookmarks 5 days ago?

What about other data such as any saved logins, history, etc.? Completely or partially missing?

I think there are three scenarios here:

(1) When refreshing, Windows kept your Firefox data in place, but Firefox is not using your latest profile. I'll give details to check on that below the line.

(2) When refreshing, Windows didn't keep your Firefox data in place, but stashed it in a folder named

C:\Windows.old

I'll give details on exploring that below the line, if relevant.

(3) When refreshing, Windows deleted your Firefox data so Firefox created a fresh profile and your data is gone (other than what you might be able to recover using Sync, if you were using Sync before).

For #1: Checking Profiles

I assume during the recent days you have done a normal Windows shutdown and restart to complete any pending updates and release any file locks. If not, please do that first.

Profile Manager Page

Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.

This page should list at least one profile and could list many. (Each profile has two folders and one or more buttons. Do not use any Remove buttons!)

The profile that Firefox is currently using will have this:

This is the profile in use and it cannot be deleted.

Do you have any other profile(s) listed on this page? If so, you can check whether it is the one you were using recently by clicking its Launch profile in new browser button.

If it is not what you want, simply close that new window.

If it IS what you want, back on the about:profiles page, click the Set as default profile button for that profile so Firefox uses it automatically at the next startup.

For #2:

Can you a C:\Windows.old folder on your system? (This is a 28-day temporary backup created by newer versions of Windows when you Refresh, but I don't know about Windows 8.1.)

If so:

Before proceeding, please set Windows to show you hidden files and folders: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14201/windows-show-hidden-files

Then explore that folder up to this point (if it exists):

C:\Windows.old\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

If you find recent data there, please pause and we can suggest how to resurrect your saved files.

I started adding bookmarks 5 days ago, mostly remedies, or pages I wanted to save that I was reading during all of those restarts.

History; I'm not sure about, but only shows for 7 days. I don't really pay attention to it.

Saved passwords and logins; I don't save them.

Yes, lots of restarting after all of those updates, as I only did a few updates at a time. Only one remains; bluetooth, which won't load, netgear (wifi) failed a few times yesterday, but has not popped back up, and yesterday the remaining Net-framework update finally loaded after about 5 tries.

1. 1 I have profile: default-release (non-deletable), and Profile: default (which seems to be from Wednesday only.)
2. 2 will be more time consuming.

This is the Microsoft remedy I had found; which I think may have the correct bookmark file (and may be the same thing you are suggesting in #2. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/bookmark-missing/6f038c05-d4e9-4866-8283-f77bf5ac5d4b

PS..from the remedy I gave you the link for I saved a file from 9/18/22 (refresh was on 9/21/22)

Thanks for you reply (I forgot to say that earlier.) I have #2 C:\Windows.old it has 2 files in it; Users and Windows

Okay, you have a Windows.old. Users is the interesting folder. After you set Windows to show you hidden files, you can explore up the path to discover what is there.

Here's the issue with the compressed JSON backups (.jsonlz4 files). They can be restored to your current Firefox, but that wipes out what you have. You have two options:

(A) Export - Restore - Import

This doesn't require any additional tools and should give you the most fidelity to the original. Here are the steps:

(1) Export your newly added bookmarks to an HTML-format bookmark file. This article has the steps: Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks.

(2) Restore the backup from the Windows.old ... bookmarkbackups folder. This article has the steps (you'll need to use the Choose File... option to open Windows File Explorer and point Firefox to the old file): Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer.

(3) Import the bookmarks.html file created in step 1. This article has the steps: Import Bookmarks from an HTML file. Sometimes the bookmarks show up in their original folders, sometimes in a new "Imported Bookmarks" folder at the bottom of the Bookmarks menu.

(B) Convert and Import

I have a tool that converts your .jsonlz4 bookmark backup files to a bookmarks.html-style file. Then you can import that to add it to your existing bookmarks. This is more suited to someone who wants to add a smaller number of bookmarks to an existing larger collection, but you could keep it in mind as an option.

(1) Convert using https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/bookbackreader.html

(2) Import the file created in step 1. This article has the steps: Import Bookmarks from an HTML file. Sometimes the bookmarks show up in their original folders, sometimes in a new "Imported Bookmarks" folder at the bottom of the Bookmarks menu.